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Plastic vs. Biodegradable Plastic
In the new world of reducing the human footprint, the ecofriendly population points to one part of American culture that most people overlook, the plastic bag. They are what we carry our groceries into our houses with, then what we carry our waste out with. They have also become a large problem in the landfills that they usually end up in. The idea of a biodegradable plastic bag contributes many benefits and offers some drawbacks. Let’s examine the benefits and drawbacks of both petroleum and biodegradable plastic. The plastic itself is a good place to start. In the united states, money talks to everyone, especially business people. The fact of the matter is that petroleum based plastic is cheap. Then, with newer production practices, manufacture of the plastic is more efficient than it ever has been, boasting numbers in the range of one hundred percent of material left over from the manufacture process being recycled. On top of this over 80 percent of people reuse plastic bags, which cuts down drastically on the amount of bags going into landfills (Sharum). The problem with petroleum based plastic is the vast amount of time that it takes for a bag to biodegrade. It can take up to 1000 years for a plastic bag to biodegrade. Then think about the number of plastic bags used every day, about one million bags are used worldwide every minute. This is an incredible amount of waste that will stay in a landfill for years or will move even worse places. Compound the sheer amount of plastic in the ground with the fact that after plastic breaks down it remains toxic (reuseit, 2013). Biodegradable plastic offers some improvement. Many advantages arise from the biodegradable formula over the normal plastic bag that is used now. Firstly, there is no reduction in quality of the product that is found with some other replacements, meaning the bag won’t break. Then, when the biodegradable plastic makes its way to the landfill it is only 12 weeks away from breaking down and being gone within six months. The benefits even go all the way back to the manufacturing process, which takes two thirds less greenhouse gas and a whopping 80 percent reduction in petroleum use. This frees up petroleum to be used in transportation needs (Rissanen). These great benefits do have major setbacks within the development of biodegradable plastic. The most important thing to business people is the heftier bill for the biodegradable bags, two to three times the cost of normal plastic bags. Then there is the competition between the manufacture of the bags and the food industry. Manufacturing the bags reduces the amount of total corn crop that can go to food production and other renewable production. In order to produce a bag that is twice as costly we also have to increase the price of the food that is put in the bag (Rissanen). The petroleum based plastic bags are cheaper but last forever in landfills. The biodegradable plastic is expensive but degrades in up to 6 months. Considered through the lens of someone who has spent a lot of time growing the crops that would go into these bags, both as groceries and as bags, the problem with the bags is the unnecessary strain it puts on the food supply. Instead of feeding the world bag companies are putting vital food towards manufacturing. That is why in my opinion the petroleum based plastic seems to be the best option as of right now. Works Cited Muswell Hill Sustainability Group. (n.d.) Biodegradable Bag. photograph. http://mhsgroup.org/2009/10/373/ reuseit. (2013). Facts about the plastic bag pandemic. Retrieved from http://www.reuseit.com/facts-and-myths/facts-about-the-plastic-bag-pandemic.htm Rissanen, E. (n.d.). Biodegradable plastic bag information. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/about_5299331_biodegradable-plastic-bag-information.html Sharum, A. (n.d.). Facts about plastic bags. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/facts_4965819_facts-plastic-bags.html